Explore Business Standard
Cyber Fraud Transactions
Online fraudsters are using new technology that bypasses security features of UPI apps to carry out financial transactions, cyber intelligence firm CloudSEK claimed in a report. According to the report, the firm has identified at least 20 active groups on messaging platform Telegram, each with over 100 members, where a toolkit by the name of "Digital Lutera" is being discussed, distributed, and operationalised. "This is not just another UPI malware variant. Digital Lutera represents a structural attack on device trust. When the operating system itself is manipulated, traditional safeguards like SIM-binding and app signature checks become unreliable. If left unaddressed, this could industrialize account takeovers at scale across the digital payments ecosystem," CloudSEK, Threat Researcher, Shobhit Mishra said. CloudSEK claims to have done an analysis of one such group alone which indicates that transactions worth Rs 25 -30 lakh were processed over just two days, highlighting how ...
Twenty-two people, including 15 women, were arrested from Bihar's Patna district for their alleged involvement in a cyber fraud, police said on Wednesday. The arrests were made during raids at three locations - Lakhan Kutir, Ved Nagar and Saubhagya Sharma Path - in Patna's Saguna Mor and Rupaspur areas. "We received information from the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) that illegal call centres were being operated in the Saguna Mor and Rupaspur areas to defraud people via cybercrimes. During raids, we arrested 15 women and seven men from three specific locations," Cyber Police Station (Patna) DSP Sangeeta told reporters. Nineteen laptops, one desktop computer, 53 mobile phones, 12 ATM cards, and several documents were recovered during the raids, she said. "Their primary targets were owners of cyber cafes. They download data and have a team to call the targeted people. They defraud them by promising B2B services and setting up Aadhaar centres," the DSP said. Sangeeta said that the ...
A 70-year-old woman from central Mumbai lost about Rs 1.15 crore to cyber scamsters, who posed as Income Tax (I-T) officials, over six years, police said on Wednesday. The incident came to light on Monday after the septuagenarian, a resident of the Worli area, filed a complaint with the Dadar police. The victim first received a call in May 2019 from a woman who claimed to be an I-T official and told her that the department wanted to return her deceased husband's money, the police said. The complainant was asked to clear "pending" taxes and various penalties accrued against her husband's name to get back his money, the official said. Believing the caller, the woman started depositing money into the accounts provided by the fraudsters, he said. Over six years, the complainant shelled out over Rs 1.15 crore in 50 transactions, but never received any money from the I-T department, he said. The woman recently shared the episode with her relatives, who told her that she was being conne
The CBI has detected 8.50 lakh mule bank accounts in over 700 branches nationwide which are being used by cyber criminals to launder proceeds from scams involving digital theft, impersonation, fraudulent investments, and UPI-based frauds, an enquiry by the agency has found. The central agency's crackdown on these mule accounts, opened using fake IDs for the limited use of siphoning victims' money, came through a coordinated search operation recently at 42 locations in Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh during which nine suspects were taken into custody, officials said Thursday. Those taken into custody include alleged middlemen, agents, aggregators, account holders, and banking correspondents, all believed to be instrumental in orchestrating and facilitating the opening of these fictitious accounts, they said. A mule account opened in the name of an individual who may or may not be aware that the account is used to launder illicit money. The CBI has found that
Approximately Rs 9 crore was frozen in Delhi in connection with cyber frauds, with around Rs 2 crore released back to the victims in west district in 2024, an official said on Friday. "These efforts are part of an ongoing initiative to protect the public from cyber criminals, who exploit digital platforms for fraudulent activities," Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vichitra Veer said. The officer further said the West district cyber police station has been operational since December 2021, securing victims' funds. Sharing details, the DCP said in 2024, the cyber police station resolved around 8,000 complaints. "During the entire year, 93 individuals were arrested or apprehended, with 22 from earlier cases and 71 from new incidents registered in 2024 alone," said the DCP. He said one of the key highlights of the year was the freezing of Rs 9.12 crore in fraudulent transactions. Victims of cyber crimes were also provided with guidance on how to apply for the release of their sto
SoftBank-backed e-commerce platform Meesho has acted against 2.2 crore suspicious transactions on its platform and filed 12 cases in the last 12 months, according to the company's annual report released on Monday. Meesho's 'Trust Assurance Report' said that it's team has developed pioneering analytical models, sophisticated data science frameworks, and advanced computational logic, which has helped prevent 13 lakh bot orders and blocked 77 lakh scam attempts from accessing the company's platform. "In the last 12 months, Meesho has prevented over 2.2 crore fraudulent transactions. Additionally, Meesho undertook extensive steps to remove bad actors from the platform," the report said. The report said that as part of its effort against account takeover fraud, Meesho launched a proactive investigation that led to filing of 9 cases against over 40 suspects in Kolkata and Ranchi. "By working closely with authorities, Meesho achieved an impressive 98 per cent success rate in addressing ..
The Uttar Pradesh Police has launched an investigation after a Noida resident found herself at the receiving end of a new cyber fraud trend, wherein she was duped of more than Rs 11 lakh and held under "digital arrest" for a day, officials said on Saturday. This is the first case in the new trend of "digital arrest fraud" lodged at the Cyber Crime police station in Noida. The thugs posed as police officials who mentioned the names of an IPS officer in the CBI and the founder of a grounded airline, associating the 50-year-old victim in a fictitious money-laundering case. A similar case was recently reported in Haryana's Faridabad where cyber thugs, posing as police personnel, got a woman "digitally arrested" for more than a week after convincing her that her personal IDs were used for illegal activities. The thugs then asked her to stay online via Skype and not share this information with anyone even as they kept a watch on her throughout the period. In her complaint, the Noida-based
To check digital frauds, the government has suspended 70 lakh mobile numbers on account of suspicious transactions, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi said on Tuesday. Emerging out of a meeting to discuss issues related to financial cyber security and increasing digital payment fraud, Joshi said banks have been asked to strengthen the system and processes in this regard. More such meetings would take place, he said, adding the next meeting is scheduled in January. With regard to Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) fraud, he said states have been asked to look into the issue and ensure data protection. He also said that there was a discussion with regard to KYC standardisation of merchants. The meeting chaired by the Financial Services Secretary also deliberated on how to ensure better coordination among various agencies to check cyber fraud. Joshi said there was a need to create awareness about cyber fraud in society to protect gullible customers from being duped. During